BCCI President Tsvetan Simeonov visited Targovishte and Silistra to meet with the local business and present the services of the Chamber

BCCI President Mr. Tsvetan Simeonov continues his sequence of visits in the regions, this week – Targovishte and Silistra. The aim is to gain awareness of the problems of the local business in surmounting the consequences of the economic stagnation in the country and present the new possibilities of widening BCCI’s services.

When meeting with diplomats and commercial representatives, when visiting our partners abroad, we must always carry a rich assortment of suggestions so that we may be able to answer the investors’ enquiries, that is why we must be familiar with the projects and industrial possibilities in every economic center – said BCCI President Mr. Simeonov in the meetings with representatives of the local and state authorities in the regions of North East Bulgaria. Soon we shall update our investment portfolios with such information, including the projects for Industrial Park of Targovishte, the search for a regional investor for the cargo airport, and the possibilities of investing in the machine-building, which has preserved its cadres potential – said Mr. Simeonov.

In his opinion, there are prospects of reviving the economy, although not in all spheres – said he in a discussion with the business organized by the local representation of the Chamber in Targovishte. The idea of the biggest employers’ organization, launched in the NCTC against the VAT increase was accepted by the Government. According to the BCCI experts, if the VAT was raised, the result for the budget incomes would not be different from the present one, because the raised tax would only be a stimulus to enter the gray sector. „If one in ten firms leaves the light sector, the state will not only fail to receive this two-percent increase, but will also lose the twelve percent formerly received” – said Mr. Simeonov. Another big problem remains the poor assimilation of the European funds on the part of the Bulgarian business. According to him, the companies have lost stimulus to apply for funding because of the “administration” factor.

The BCCI President attended the delivery of awards at the first businessman-of-the-year competition of Tarfovishte , organized by the municipality . Nominated were business representatives in 27 categories , divided into eight sectors , defined in categories for small, medium and large-scale business ; evaluated by balance, local taxes , investments, etc.

In Silistra, Mr. Simeonov held meetings with the regional governor Dr. Vladimir Yankov and the deputy mayor Mr. Veselin Andreev.
Clerks sabotage the business when they do not do their job – shared the business representatives at a meeting. Tsvetan Simeonov reminded that the idea of a 10% tax on the corporate profit and on the incomes was first presented in written as early as 2004 by the BCCI. The anti-crisis measures, in addition to reducing the expenditure for administration, must be aimed at maintaining the tax levels, bearing in mind that the costs of collecting luxury-tax should not exceed expected revenues.

Tsvetan Simeonov said that in the next negotiations at the NCTC, the syndicates’ ambition for a sharp increase of the minimal working salary should be balanced with the previous unique practice of minimal insurance limits. The logic for such demand, presented by the participants in the meeting as well, is that distortions were made namely in sectors like the building sector, and the stagnation has already rendered this approach inadequate. The time is coming to leave this philosophy behind and to talk about real levels and real payments, which is the normal practice. The companies working “in the light” that participated in the meeting, complained that employees of the Labor Inspectorate easily accepted declarations of employment contracts at the minimum working salary, while they should be performing more thorough inspections. The companies reminded that everybody on the market should work on equal competition conditions, without unlawful advantages for anybody.
For the business in Silistra, which participates in all competitions for Euro funds, the biggest problem is the financial resource for servicing intermediate payments. Why the business recently fell silent and which companies may prognosticate their horizon for at least one year ahead – was one of the questions answered by Tsvetan Simeonov.

After recent meetings at the Chamber of Commerce in Slovenia, Mr. Simeonov explained that the Slovenian industry did not have a free quota to trade with carbon emissions and the possibility for Bulgaria to have such free resource must be used as a competitive advantage of our industry. In this sense, investors from abroad will not need to make expenses in buying quotas from outside Bulgaria for eventual development of the production in Bulgaria.

Now when the expectations for economic upsurge are increasing, the most successful will be those companies, which have managed to preserve most of their market advantages, which have made innovations including in their workers and they will be the first to win after this crisis – said Tsvetan Simeonov at the press-conference in Silistra.